Jeffrey Warren Roberts

Overview

Research Focus

My general research interest is biochemical mechanisms controlling gene expression, particularly those which determine the ability of RNA polymerase to transcribe particular genes. Our primary subject is the activity of transcription antiterminators, regulatory proteins that affect the ability of RNA polymerase to recognize transcription terminators. We also study the nature of promoter recognition by initiation factors, in particular the mechanism by which sigma factors recognize and mediate melting of promoter sequences.

Publications

• B.Z. Ring, W.S. Yarnell, and J.W. Roberts (1996). Function of E. coli RNA Polymerase Sigma Factor s70 in Promoter-Proximal Pausing. Cell, 86, 485-493.
• C.W. Roberts and J.W. Roberts (1996). Base Specific Recognition of the Nontemplate Strand of Promoter DNA by E. coli RNA Polymerase. Cell 86, 495-501 (1996)
• M.T. Marr and J.W. Roberts (1997). "Promoter Recognition As Measured by Binding of Polymerase to Nontemplate Strand Oligonucleotide." Science, 276, 1258-1260.
• Ko, D.C., Marr, M.T., Guo, J., and Roberts, J.W. (1998). A Surface of E. coli s70 Required for Promoter Function and Antitermination by Phage Lambda Q Protein. Genes and Development 12, 3276-3285.
• Roberts, J.W., Yarnell, W., Bartlett, E., Guo, J., Marr, M., Ko, D., Sun, H., and Roberts, C.W. (1999). Antitermination by Phage l Q Protein. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology 63, 319-325.
• Yarnell, W.S., and Roberts, J.W. (1999). Mechanism of Intrinsic Transcription Termination and Antitermination. Science 284, 611-615.
• Marr, M.T., & J.W. Roberts (2000).  "Function of Transcription Factors GreA and GreB at a Regulatory Pause Site", Molecular Cell, 6, 1275-1285.
• Marr, M.T., Saul A. Datwyler, Claude F. Meares, & Jeffrey W. Roberts (2001).  "Restructuring of an RNA polymerase holoenzyme elongation complex by lambdoid phage Q proteins"  Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 98, 8972-8978
• Park, J.-S., M.T. Marr, & J.W. Roberts (2002).  "E. coli Transcription Repair Coupling Factor (Mfd protein) Rescues Arrested Complexes by Promoting Forward Translocation"  Cell  109, 757-767
• Nickels, B.E., Roberts, C.W., Sun, H., Roberts, J.W., & Hochschild, A.  (2002).  "The s⁷⁰ subunit of RNA polymerase is contacted by the lQ antiterminator during early elongation "  Molecular Cell,  10, 611-622
• Adelman, K., La Porta, A., Santangelo, T.J., Lis, J.T., Roberts, J.W., & Wang, M.D. (2002)  "Single Molecule Analysis of RNA Polymerase Elongation Reveals Uniform Kinetic Behavior"  Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 99, 13538-13543
• Santangelo, T.J., Mooney, R.A., Landick, R., & Roberts, J.W., (2003).  "RNA Polymerase mutations that impair conversion to a termination resistant complex by Q antiterminator proteins"  Genes & Development, 17, 1281-1292
• Ryder, Andrew M. & Jeffrey W. Roberts (2003).  “Role of the Non-template Strand of the Elongation Bubble in Intrinsic Transcription Termination”.  J. Mol. Biol. 334, 205-213
• Guo, Jingshu and Roberts, Jeffrey W. (2004).  “DNA Binding Regions of Q Proteins of Phages land f80”  J. Bacteriology 186, 3599-3608
• Santangelo, T.J. and Roberts, J.W., (2004).  “Forward Translocation Is the Natural Pathway of RNA Release at an Intrinsic Terminator”.  Mol. Cell 14, 117-126.
• Park, J.-S. & J.W. Roberts (2006).  “Role of DNA Bubble Rewinding in Enzymatic Transcription Termination”  Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 4870-4875
• Nickels, B.E., Roberts, C.W., Roberts, J.W., and Hochschild, A. (2006).  “RNA-Mediated Destabilization of the s70 Region 4/b Flap Interaction Facilitates Engagement of RNA Polymerase by the Q Antiterminator”  Mol. Cell. 24, 457-468
• Roberts, J.W. (2006).  “RNA Polymerase, A Scrunching Machine” Science 314, 1097-1098.  [A Perspective]